Drug dogs and overdose treatment: inquest jury makes recommendations

In an effort to stem the tide of narcotics being smuggled in to Windsor’s jail system, a coroner’s jury wants the province to start using drug dogs and stop housing weekend inmates with the general population.

The suggestions were among 15 recommendations, which focused heavily on drug abuse, a jury put forward Friday following the inquest into the death Windsor Jail inmate Kendra Blackbird.

The issue of intermittent inmates – who serve their time on weekends and live the rest of the week in the community – was a main focus of the inquest. Police, a former inmate and corrections officers all testified it’s common knowledge that intermittent inmates smuggle drugs into the facility.

“What we did hear is there are still gaps in the system,” said Elizabeth Brown, counsel to the coroner. “The jury listened, the jury gave very thoughtful recommendations that addressed those gaps. The jury was able to acknowledge, and heard evidence, that drug use and abuse within the Windsor Jail is very prevalent. Many of the recommendations speak directly to that drug use and abuse, and systems that need to be put into place to address it and manage it.”

Blackbird, 34, a member of Walpole Island First Nation, died Oct. 1, 2012 after she was found comatose in her Windsor Jail cell.

An autopsy revealed she had a cocktail of drugs in her system including Oxycodone and sedatives, which combined together to amplify their effects on her body. After an intermittent inmate smuggled the drugs into the jail, Blackbird stayed up all night crushing the pills and snorting them. She went to bed the following morning and never got up again.

“The evidence showed from the corrections officers, almost every one of them that was asked, that drug abuse or substance abuse issues is prevalent among inmates,” said Brown. “We heard statistics like 90 per cent. This is off the top of their head, but at the same time no one was surprised.”

Six of the recommendations were aimed at the new Southwest Detention Centre. The others were for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

Recommendations for the jail included “refresher training” for jail staff on the management and supervision of medical conditions, including drug addiction and overdose.

They jury wants the ministry to continue to explore and implement emerging techniques and technologies for detecting contraband in correctional facilities. They also want it to consider using drug detecting dogs around inmates. Other recommendations include creating a separate policy to manage drug overdoses, and implementing Native-specific programming for Indigenous inmates.

“We heard evidence that Native specific services provided by Native people are required because of the historical trauma that has been suffered by Native people, and that indigenous peoples have very different needs and do not respond well to mainstream treatment options,” said Colleen Johnson, who represented Walpole Island First Nation.

The ministry has a year to address the verdict and make comments.

Ministry counsel Amal Chaudry pointed out that Windsor Jail will soon be replaced by the newer, bigger and modern detention centre. She said the new facility will address many of the concerns in the recommendations. But she also acknowledged it’s an ongoing process.

“The assessment is continuous,” said Chaudry. “The needs of an inmate population in any particular jurisdiction are continuously changing, so there’s never a policy that you can sit on and say ‘that’s it.’ The ministry is very aware of that and they continue to look at their policies.”

Raymond Colautti, who represented Blackbird’s family at the inquest, said he believes the recommendations could save lives in the future.

“So on behalf of the family we’re satisfied, though of course greatly saddened,” he said. “It has a very bittersweet result. She’s not here. It’s a tragedy that could have been prevented. There were five or six things that could have been done along the way that could have avoided it. As is usual in a very complex system, there’s been sort of a cascade of failures, any one of which if changed would have led to a different result.”

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